Mark Ruffalo Spoiled the End of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Last Summer and No One Noticed

The following post contains SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War, as previously indicated above by the words “spoiled” “the end” and “Avengers: Infinity War” in the headline above.

Marvel did an astonishingly good job keeping secret the major spoilers in the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Sure, fans guessed some of the twists based on the trailer, and a few of the surprise returning characters were spoiled by some paparazzi photos. But the brunt of the ending — Thanos succeeding in collecting all the Infinity Stones and wiping out half the universe, including many of the Avengers — was about as major a shocker as any blockbuster in recent memory. Marvel kept that ending in a vault so secure it would make Odin jealous.

Except the ending was revealed nearly a year ago in an interview with a national television show, and basically nobody noticed.

Don’t believe me? Watch the clip below from Good Morning America recorded at D23, the Disney fan convention, featuring Don Cheadle and Mark Ruffalo. They start talking about Ruffalo’s role in the then-upcoming Thor: Ragnarok, and he starts joking around about what happens in the movie after that, meaning Avengers: Infinity War. And for about half a second, Ruffalo slips up and gives it away before recovering and turning it into a joke.

Watch the clip below; the key moment happens around 40 seconds in:

Listen carefully, and you can hear Ruffalo start to say that that half of the Avengers die, before he quickly recovers and says everybody dies, and starts to play it off like it was all a big joke. The interviewer joins in the joking, and so does Cheadle. But if you’re paying attention, you can hear Ruffalo start to say “half” and then cut himself off.

I mean, watch Don Cheadle react to Ruffalo. He knew how close he came to slipping up. He almost jumps out of his chair.

Let this be a lesson to all of us: These fluffy junket interviews can seem pretty pointless, but you never know when someone is going to reveal something in them. It does happen.